Affinity photo 2 has just launched and I want to share a few of my new favorite features
let's start with the develop Persona which now has non-destructive editing when I open the raw
file it opens automatically into the develop Persona as it always has and at first glance
it seemed like very little has changed but this is good news because it means you won't need to
waste time relearning how to use the software I'll make a few adjustments to this raw file
so you can see what I mean let's start by increasing the exposure and adjusting the
shadows I'm also going to add the gradient overlay to the sky to reduce the brightness
something that I do want to mention though is that the sharpening tools now seem to be working
correctly in the previous version of affinity photo I needed to be at 100 magnification to
see their effect now I can see the sharpening at any magnification and it's being applied properly
to the image next I'm going to apply a black and white conversion to this image now this is
something that I usually recommend leaving until the photo Persona that's because it's
applied directly to the image pixels when you exit the develop Persona now in Affinity photo
2 we have the option to apply our changes as a non-destructive edit we can still use the original
pixel layer but there are two new raw options one embeds the raw file data into the image and
the Earth creates a link to the original raw file the embedded options saved as a larger file but
it's the safest option to use it means that if the original raw file isn't available for some reason
we can still re-edit the adjustments with the link option you need to maintain a link between
the edited image and the original raw file let's select the embedded option and develop this image
once we have the image open in the photo Persona it looks like any of the layer but watch what
happens when I double click the layer we go back to the develop Persona and my adjustments have
been saved now I can remove the black and white conversion from the image which I couldn't do in
the earlier version of affinity photo notice also that I now can't change the layer type I'm locked
into using the embedded raw layer so I don't need to worry about changing it before I click the
develop button again non-destructive raw editing is a fantastic enhancement to Affinity photo 2
and it's a long needed feature no one to what's possibly my favorite new feature which is the
Luminosity range mask it's an area where Affinity photo is lagged behind the likes of Photoshop
because photo Photoshop supports developers in developing extensions you can purchase third-party
masking tools like lumenzia and TK actions no in Affinity photo 2 we have the new Luminosity range
mask feature to fill this Gap to show you how it works I've added a levels adjustment layer to this
image I've also created a rough mask to restrict the levels adjustment to the foreground let's say
that I want to now use the levels adjustment to lighten the foreground Shadows by moving
the gamma slider left this works fine but notice the foreground doesn't look quite as attractive
as it did it's because my level's adjustment is affecting all the tones in the foreground but I
really want to restrict it to the Shadows this is where the new Luminosity range mask can help
by targeting my adjustment onto a specific tonal range when I click to add a new mask I now have
several choices including the Luminosity range mask if you're familiar with the blend ranges
dialog you will probably we feel at home using the Luminosity range mask the advantage the new mask
has though is a preview option to visualize the selection when I turn it on I'm viewing the mask
now rather than the image the reason that it's all completely white is that everything is being
selected by default remember with a mask white reveals and black conceals the grid you see in the
dialog works just like a graph the horizontal axis represents image pixels from black on the left to
White on the right the vertical axis controls how much of a tone is included in the mask when the
point is at the top the tone is selected at 100 percent because all the points along this line
are at the maximum value the entire mask is white now remember back to what I was trying to do with
the levels layer I wanted to lighten the shadows in the image but I didn't want it to affect the
other tones in this foreground when I drag the white Point down to the bottom you can see the
mask turns black in the brightest areas of the image this then hides the levels adjustment from
those areas the mass preview is great because we can use it to visualize what's happening when we
make an adjustment to this curve also because this is a curve line we can add additional points to
fine-tune the selection then we can toggle the preview off and on to check the true effect of
what's Happening using the adjustment on the image and because we have a regular mask also attached
to the layer the two are working together so I'm only affecting the foreground now let's look at
another of the great new features which is the color range mask it's like the Luminosity range
mask but using Color to create the mask I'll add a new Vibrance adjustment layer to this image to
show you a simple example of how it works when I increase the Vibrance and saturation you can see
it affects the colors across the entire image I'm going to push the adjustment much too far
now just so you can see the effect on the video more easily now I'll add a hue range mask from
the new mask icon again I can click the preview option to see the mask rather than the image I
can then use the color range selection points to pick a color I want to apply the adjustment
to now you can see that it's affecting the orange in the bows there's also a useful blur option to
soften the edges of the Mask which can help to blend the adjustment you make even though I've
added a silly amount of saturation to this image notice that it looks better when it's limited to
a specific color range it's also possible to say presets for common color ranges like the sky and
don't forget we can combine this with regular masks as well as combining it with the new
luminance range mask these are extremely powerful features that make editing easier faster and allow
you to produce more natural results overall I'm extremely impressed by the new Affinity photo
2 and I've only shown you a few of the new features in this video I hope you've enjoyed
today's review of the features but if you're new to infinity and trying to learn how to use it this
next video will help you do just that thanks for watching and I hope to see you again soon